What it Means to be Both a Servant and a Leader
Honesty time: when I first chose to be the hustler of this team, I had no idea what being a hustler means. I thought it was simply being the “face of the group,” so to speak. But then, when I studied further about being a hustler, I found out that one of the things I have to do is something called servant leadership.
What is Servant Leadership?
My immediate reaction when I read that qualification was “Huh?” because the truth is, the words servant and leader are rarely strung together, right? So then I started researching what it is, and found out some pretty interesting things! I’ll try to break them down in this article.
Servant leadership is a type of leadership philosophy where the leader’s main goal is to serve. This is different from the traditional philosophy, where the leader’s main focus is to make the company/organization thrive. A servant leader puts the needs of the team members first and helps people develop to perform as highly as possible. As stated by its founder, Robert K. Greenleaf, a servant leader should be focused on “Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”
The 9 Qualities of a Servant Leader
Now, when you hear the words “servant leader” you might be inclined to think that it’s a leadership where the leader literally becomes a servant. For example, when you come to work, your leader will be there waiting with a coffee for you. When you are having a hard time, your leader will take over your work and do it for you. If you need someone doing your grunt work for you, there your leader is: ready and waiting.
But nope! That’s not servant leadership.
Servant leadership is a delicate balance between being a leader and a servant. When you’re a servant leader, it doesn’t mean you have to completely let go of all your leadership qualities. Instead, a servant leader is one who:
1. Values diverse opinions
In a team, it’s a given that there will be a lot of different opinions. A servant leader is someone who seeks to take all of them into consideration, and makes a decision based on the pooled opinion instead of their own. If you parrot back your leader’s opinion instead of your own, then the team you are in does not have a servant leader.
I try to implement this as best I could in our team. Naturally, I’m prone to being worried about ignoring others and accidentally hurting their feelings, so I always make sure that whatever decision we make is made as a team. If there is someone who looks like they’d like to speak, I encourage them to do so and try my best to take their opinion into consideration.
2. Cultivates a culture of trust
A servant leader doesn’t condone gossiping about team members. Should any conflicts arise, they try to resolve it with the team — not turn it into a backroom gossip material. There is no such thing as a pocket veto within a servant leadership team.
Thankfully, our team has not yet had to experience any type of conflicts like this. So far, all of the bad feelings and problems we’ve had, we’ve always resolved with the team. Whether it be in our group chat, or during our many coding sessions, or even during our sprint retrospectives.
3. Develops other leaders
This quality means that a servant leader teaches others to lead, provides opportunities for growth, and demonstrates by example. It also means that the leader is not always leading, but delegates tasks and trusts others to lead.
Personally, I think our team is already full of incredible leaders. This makes delegating tasks and trusting each other so much easier. And to be honest, I don’t really feel like I’m the leader of this team. We all pitch in and contribute our own two cents to the pot.
4. Helps people with life issues
Let’s face it: in the ideal, personal issues aren’t supposed to interfere with work. But the truth is, a lot of times life issues affect work greatly. This is why a servant leader should strive to help their team members not only about matters of work, but also matters of life. Because if a person has an enjoyable life outside of work, then they will also perform better in the team.
I think our team in particular has no problems at all with this aspect. We often joke about things unrelated to PsychoTip’s development, and at this point we know things about each other that has nothing to do with this course. We also regularly help each other with other assignments, or even give each other advice about life.
5. Encourages
The hallmark of a servant leader is encouragement. And a true servant leader says, “Let’s go do it,” not, “You go do it.”
Now, this one I think I’m still struggling with. Not that I don’t want to help, of course, but oftentimes I tend to focus on my work first before helping others. But after I have learned about this, I will most definitely strive to more conscious of others’ difficulties in doing their tasks.
6. Sells instead of tells
A servant leader is the complete opposite of a dictator. They persuade, not tell. There is a discussion involved in task delegation, instead of the leader just handing out assignments regardless of the team’s preferences.
Luckily, I think the scrum framework facilitates this very well. In our sprint plannings and scrum meetings, I always ask my team members what task they’d like to take for the next period, and so far there has not been clashes where someone has had to do something they didn’t want to do.
7. Thinks “you,” not “me”
There has to be a selfless quality in a servant leader. If someone only thinks of “How can this benefit me?” they are immediately disqualified as a servant leader.
Again, I’m kind of struggling with this one. My natural instinct is still to think about myself first and others second, but I’ve been trying to squash that instinct. I think it’s a very good point, and incredibly right quality to have. The first thought in a leader’s mind should not be what would benefit them, but what would benefit each member of the team — and by extension, the team itself.
8. Thinks long-term
A servant leader is thinking about the next generation, the next leader, the next opportunity. That means a tradeoff between what’s important today versus tomorrow, and making choices to benefit the future.
As a very impulsive person, I sometimes struggle with thinking past today and tomorrow. It’s one of the reasons I’m grateful some of my team members are able to think about the bigger picture: that way, we can remind each other about the long-term implications of whatever implementation we are doing.
9. Acts with humility
A servant leader doesn’t flaunt their title of “leader” around. They don’t think they’re too good to partake in things like cleaning up a table, or picking up the trash left after a meeting. Setting an example of service, the servant leader understands that it is not about the leader, but about others.
I don’t know if I “act with humility” per se, but the truth is I never really felt like I was the leader of the team. It’s almost like we’re a democracy; we do everything together, and we discuss everything as a team. If a situation arises when someone needs to take charge, I think almost all of us have done so at a point in time. So it’s not always just one person that leads and the others follow.
